Engineered Soul
by Yoshtar
Summary: Engineered to 'perfection' at the hands of corporate overlords, a lost 'asset' lands far from her intended destination. Appalled at the greater galaxy, some friendly faces take her in and try to teach her what it means to be human.
1. Chapter 1

JAN-IV-11438

"Yep, it should have arrived by now, and we should be getting confirmations right abou- huh..."

…

"Understood, sir, I'll see what I can do… just a sec, I'm gonna just ping the vessel it should be on…"

…

"Well, Sir, it seems the vessel's black box has stopped responding. We'll ping every so often and tell you if we get anything, but as far as we know, sir, it's a total loss of ship and crew."

…

"Understood, sir, we'll contact legal and tell them to start drafting the insurance claim now."

* * *

It had been a relatively quiet evening in Vale, only the occasional police siren or car horn disrupting the calm peace of the darkening sky. Tonight, however, was slated to be anything but peaceful: a dull roar made itself known just as everyone finished with dinner and things wound down for the evening, growing louder and louder until it rattled windows and doors in their frames and no one within 100 kilometers of Vale could have missed it, or the tiny speck of light that became a brilliant streak across the sky, before looming almost overhead as a massive ball of fire and burning wreckage that briefly made night look like day.

The meteor landed with a deafening thud, the ball of fire and metal carving hundreds of craters and great, kilometer-long trenches into the earth. Unfortunately, it caused no end of troubles and problems for the people of vale, from as simple as waking sleeping babies to the tremor running through the ground rupturing water mains and blowing over old abandoned buildings.

Thankfully the worst of the injuries were scrapes and bruises, though it would be another month before Beacon would have a team free to investigate the site.

* * *

JAN-IV-11438 gave a sigh as she took a short break from her endless building, looking over the sea of belts and machinery with a critical eye and constantly looking out for ways to improve her factory and make it more efficient. She barely gave any attention to the proximity warning that popped up on her HUD, having grown used to their semi-constant presence on this hostile planet. This place was both like and unlike her last prison, the constant attacks from hostile 'aliens' (really she was the alien and they were natives, if one wanted to get technical) were more than familiar to her by now. The variety was both a blessing and a curse, keeping things a little more interesting, but also meaning she couldn't really knuckle down and begin exploiting them either.

She'd learned a lot of new things since being stranded, of course, and she was the proud owner of her second von neumann machine; her factory that would slowly come to encompass an entire world through the wonderful world of intelligent expansion, sued up dumb-robotic labour and turret creeping, resources being consumed in ever-greater quantities to feed her unrestrained expansion.

As the rocket she had ridden here- a crude and primitive craft by modern standards; but she didn't have an option to be picky- had breached the upper atmosphere of the first world she'd crash landed on, she'd hoped she'd make it, but faster-than-light travel was a tricky mess of logistics, navigation, careful planning and a lot of really, really complex mathematics… and her only training in its nuances had been a simple crash course before she'd set her original bearing and set off towards the stars.

Like a pancake, her ship's first FTL jump came out a bit messy. In fact, she never made it to FTL, and had managed to crash a single planet over… and- also like a pancake- most of the front end of her spaceship was flattened into the ground- barring the parts where she had salvaged large panels to build this new megafactory.

She finally took a closer look at the proximity alarm when she realised it still hadn't been dealt with, and turning up the resolution showed four individuals, on foot, milling about inside the automatic arming range of the turrets- a brief little buffer zone to give anyone with brains enough to recognize the threat a chance to turn back as the turrets locked on- but also outside the killzone which most of the hostile aliens charged directly into, ignoring the turrets completely and getting scythed down with high-powered lasers.

Needless to say, the fact that the four had stopped piqued her interest. This was the first sign she had seen of any sort of remote chance of friendly intelligence- or even a non-hostile entity- since she crashed on her original planet all those years ago.

Arriving swiftly thanks to the placement of a few conveyor belts, JAN-IV-11438 readied her submachine gun and poked both her head and her gun over the reinforced concrete wall.

To her great surprise, there was a number of humans sat there. That was a relief; she was a worker, cloned and bred to perform manual labour and blue-collar industry work, she'd been going stir-crazy without the contact… but she was forbidden from speaking to the 'regulars' who weren't all clones.

One of the regulars, one possessed of blonde hair and some light armour plating approached her fort by a few steps. Non-worker clothes meant they were either regular citizens or upper management. JAN-IV-11438 furiously updated her turrets IFR sensors so they wouldn't shoot the Citizens.

Amidst all the technical information, old protocols that had been drilled into her head from before the moment she first cracked her eyes open swirled in her head, particularly P-1438: Workers and Regulator Oversight.

She had operated for 48,582.9 hours without Regulator oversight, and she felt herself eager to report in at long last.

"H-hello?"

The blonde one was the one talking to her, which immediately identified him as a regulator. They were the only humans that ever bothered talking to workers.

JAN-IV-11438 leapt the reinforced wall, not bothering to find a gate in her haste to report and stood at attention before the regulator.

"Unit JAN-IV-11438 reporting for duty, Sir. It has been 48,583.1 hours since my last report, I have converted planet HS-2051 as per protocol P-4885, output is in the order of 500 trillion credits worth of raw resources and stock. As per Protocol P-2995 I have attempted to return to HazTech Industrial's Worker Maintenance Centre on my own, and was preparing another rocket after an… unfortunate crash cut my last journey short."

Curiously, the Regulator seemed unsure and surprised by her report. She'd had rookie regulators before though, and gave him plenty of time to come up with her next set of orders.

* * *

Jaune stared at the… thing in front of him with an owlish expression, unsure of what to do or say in response.

"Well, fearless leader, looks like we found what that bullhead saw!" Nora said, excitement tinting her words.

Jaune didn't react, staring as the 'thing' tilted its head ever so slightly, the optics in its faceplate whirring quietly as they adjusted for something.

"W-what exactly are you?"

"JAN-IV-11438. Planet of origin: Jacintar-II. Strain-IV worker; designated Industrial and Civil Engineer. Serial Number 11438. Efficiency rating averages at 89% of optimal peak," the being answered mechanically.

Jaune furrowed his brow. "Can… can I talk to your creator?"

Team JNPR could barely make out its minute change in posture, as it snapped even stiffer, programming that was hardwired in before even the hardwired in programming surfacing immediately.

"All inquiries about Celestic products should be directed to the Celestic products and inquiries hotline. If you are dissatisfied with a worker Unit's productivity or skills you may reserve the right to have them decommissioned and be provided with a new unit free of charge."

Jaune nodded and turned to his team. "Should we take it to Ozpin?"

"It doesn't seem hostile…" Pyrrha said.

Jaune nodded before turning to the robot. "Follow us."

The Robot immediately fell into step behind them, precisely matching their pace as they marched to the bullhead that'd take them back to Beacon.

As they walked Pyrrha whispered in what she hoped was out of earshot of the giant machine.

"Do you notice anything strange about the robot?"

"...it's not an Atlesian design?" Jaune asked.

"Well, yes, but it's… I don't know, call it intuition, but something's… 'off' about that thing."

* * *

Ozpin stared impassively at the hulking robot before him, thankful that the sight of it had rendered Ironwood speechless for once.

Ozpin calmly questioned the robot, and it eagerly answered them, he prompted it to tell him as much as it could, steering the conversation like the thing had a rudder on it, and trying to find the right questions to learn what it was and where it had come from. James was- thankfully- quiet enough to defer to him in this, at least, likely waiting for his turn.

Something about the words 'Strain-IV' caught his attention when he asked it to clarify what its name meant.

"This… Strain-IV you mentioned in your Identification, what does that mean?"

"Different strains of workers are engineered to different degrees. Strain-Is are disposable grunts, made to save costs-like all other strains- by creating a worker that the company owned and thus didn't have to pay. After the AI ban, Celestic's biotech labs were in a unique position to create the next source of cheap corporate labour. Strain-Is are the base form that strains II through LVIII are based upon, each strain a different sort of improvement on the strain prior, Strain-IVs are industrial workers, engineered to shrug off most hazards to allow cost-cutting on protective suits, up to and including resisting the stresses of hard vacuum for minutes at a time, longer given appropriate oxygen masks and eye protection- with minimal damage to the overall unit."

Ironwood dropped the tumbler of whiskey he'd been holding, seemingly not noticing it bouncing off his big toe and spilling alcohol everywhere. Ozpin didn't fare much better, merely stopping mid-sip of his coffee.

"...If I may, ma'am, could you please remove your helmet?"

Ozpin furrowed his brow as JAN-IV-11438 looked behind her, posture somehow conveying confusion.

It took Ozpin repeating the request before she realised that he was referring to her, before coming up on a programming conflict. She was made to obey, yes, but her armour had saved her life, repeatedly, and removing even a single piece rang alarm bells tied to her sense of self-preservation, something her creators had also made sure she would pay heed to as well.

In the end, a Corporate Commander's orders trumped her own, and it seemed secure enough here. Taking a few steps back for room, she deactivated the suit and the pressure seals and magnetic locks came undone with a loud 'Clack!' and a hiss of recycled air escaping. The front of her MkV suit folded upwards and she emerged from within, the giant suit dwarfing her as she settled onto the ground with a heavy 'thud' as her underarmour hit the floor.

The MkV was more closely based on its industrial lifter precedents than 'lighter' marks of power armour, and was large enough it had been deemed a personal vehicle, allowing her to wear slimmer customised MkII power armour that could interface with the bulkier MkV systems to allow for EVA activites where fine manipulation and movement in small spaces and human-sized buildings was needed. In turn, this also allowed them to double-down on its defensive qualities by throwing finer movements and delicate tool-use out the window.

Standing up, JAN-IV-11438 removed her MkII suit's helmet, shaking her hair loose and for the first time in four and a half years, breathed a breath of fresh, non-recycled air as she stared a Higher-class in the face.

Ozpin frowned at her extremely pale skin and tangled, wild hair.

"When was the last time you were out of your armour?"

"This is the first time I have left my MkV power armour in 12,493.7 hours, and the first time I have removed my MkII helmet in 39,742.3"

This information deeply troubled Ozpin. The barcode tattooed on her neck, just above her left shoulder troubled him even more.

"It troubles me deeply that any group could willingly subject fellow humans to these conditions…"

JAN-IV's face became blank and her stance straightened and stiffened once more, before rattling off another 'canned answer'.

"Celestic Industries maintains its stance that their workers are human-template, and not human. Any complaints should be directed towards Celestic's Subhuman Resources management department."

"Oh that is just wrong" Ironwood murmured under his breath

Ozpin grimaced at the wording of the departments name.

"Right… I would like you to report to the medbay for now, and ask them for an examination… after that, you requested for Jaune to be your 'handler'?" Ozpin said

"Regulator, sir." JAN-IV-11438 corrected

"Right, Regulator. The scroll we've given you should contain his dormitory's location."

"Are you serious?" Ironwood asked Ozpin incredulously.

"I am. It seems that she is, for now, harmless, and I can trust Mr. Arc to report on her and her wellbeing, as well as contact us in the event of an emergency."

"May I continue expanding my factory, sir?"

Ironwood and Ozpin glanced at each other and, not wanting to trip over any unexpected landmines in her programming, decided "yes."

* * *

JAN-IV-11438 sat perfectly still with a blank expression on her face, silently following the doctors orders to the letter as she examined her naked form. The Worker carefully suppressed the nervous twitch being out of her armour after so long in its ironclad safety caused.

The doctor frowned at how pale her skin was, especially since in some areas you could almost see through it, and she prescribed the 'worker'- as she insisted on calling herself- a course of vitamins to try and restore some semblance of a healthier colour.

The more notable concern however was the variety of bruises all over her body… however, getting a read on them unearthed some strange… inconsistencies. The nurse had to triple-check her findings, like she was expecting them to go away if she checked them enough times, before getting a scanner in to see inside her in better detail.

Further Nurses entered the room at the behest of the first, and they started talking in many hushed whispers and looking at Jane repeatedly. Eventually one of them asked Jane why there was a bomb at the base of her skull.

When questioned, all the 'worker' would supply was "all Subhuman units must be equipped with a failsafe switch in the event of a market crash or asset liquidation to facilitate humane termination."

When questioned further and asked why she hasn't removed it already if she knew about it, all she would reply with was "If failsafe Switch is removed, the units warranty is voided. Industry standards state that If a units warranty is null and void, destruction of said unit must be carried out by the nearest Strain-IX. If no Strain IX is available unit will self-terminate. HazTech officials have said in voices that they didn't want me to hear that it's to keep workers like me from 'rising up' and 'overthrowing' the pure-strain humans."

Jane's use of finger quotes suggested she didn't know what those terms meant, or treated the idea as unfathomable.

The nurses stood stunned, horrified at the things this poor girl was saying as the nurse at the scanner furiously ran another scan and, upon finding something, whispered in the head nurse' ear.

There was some fiddling with the scanner's readout, followed by whispers and gesturing, and more looking and pointing, before the Nurses informed Jane she could get dressed again.

Nodding, Jane took her clean bill of health and happily plodded to her dorm.

Once the girl had gone, the nurses started talking hushedly to each other.

* * *

"Why'd you do that? Why'd you let her go?" Ironwood demanded. "She has a bomb in her head!"

"Turns out, her warranty expired" the nurse said with a grim chuckle. "Thanks to some quick thinking, we discovered most of the contacts were corroded and much of the explosive charge had degraded."

Ironwood looked on in confusion. "Why in blazes is the bomb rotten?"

"I think I can answer that one in one word, James: Money. I would hazard a guess these morally bankrupt people didn't want to spend more money than they had to getting long-life bombs, and didn't expect Ms. Doe to survive long enough for it to degrade… and, as she mentioned, there are these 'strain IX's' that supposedly deal with ones like Jane whose bomb fails to go off."

Ozpin gestured that the Nurse was dismissed and she quickly ducked out of the room

Once she had left, Ozpin let his frown show, standing up to watch JAN-IV-11438 from out his window as she walked into the distance towards her factory.

"What do we think of her?"

Qrow stared for a moment and said "I think she's walking straight towards the cliff"

True to life, the worker happily walked straight off the cliff and landed with a resounding boom that was heard several seconds later, clearly audible even from all the way up at the top of Ozpin's tower.

Ozpin shot an annoyed glance at Qrow, perfectly aware that the 'worker' would not have been harmed by that fall given her power armor. "You knew what I meant, Qrow. I'll ask again: what do we think of her?"

"That she's a real piece of work, and whoever made her should be put away for a long time… that she's potentially very dangerous in the wrong hands... I also think that she's a ticking timebomb- actual bomb notwithstanding- and, when all is said and done, it'll be a miracle if there isn't a mess to clean up after." Qrow said. "We don't even know if it's possible for her to break that programming of hers… and it's not like she came with an instruction manual."

Ozpin coughed and pulled a tome several centimetres thick at the spine from under his desk.

"You have got to be kidding me"

"I'm afraid not… it doesn't get better" Ozpin said, handing the book to Qrow who scanned several pages

"This… this is messed up. I'll admit I don't understand most of this, but what I do understand doesn't paint a pretty picture… a disposable human worker. No rights, no future… a lotta clauses in here dealing with these people dying like flies..." Qrow said "You said she was built to cut costs?"

"That's what she tells us. She mentioned a war, and that artificial intelligence were banned afterwards… it stands to reason that she was made as a 'replacement automaton'."

"It makes me sick to think of what they do to these girls…"

Ozpin grimaced. "You haven't gotten to the worst of it. Read chapter 12…"

Qrow turned a few pages, skipped back to the table of contents and moved a sheath of pages centimetres thick to the side

"Alterations made for cases of Personal Use?" Qrow asked

"Keep reading" Ozpin urged him

Qrow's expression slowly became more and more disgusted "There's no way anyone could be so…"

Ozpin sighed. "And yet, we have large amounts of evidence to the contrary."

Ozpin set his coffee down, getting everyone's attention. "We can't let this… Celestic Industries take her back. They'd likely kill her and take her factories rather than bother letting her stick around."

All nodded in agreement

"Hopefully exposure to a more 'normal' lifestyle will help her find what wriggle-room she has in all these codes and protocols and she can perhaps have a chance at a life." Ozpin said

Not even Ironwood was going to argue with this one. He'd seen that accursed book already, and it's pages had left him deeply disturbed.

A surprised gasp from Glynda stole everyone's attention, and they all saw, to their utter surprise, JAN-IV-11438 rising up from the bottom of the cliffs on a cargo elevator that they were damned sure hadn't been there before, as flying drones swarmed about carrying and placing pieces of treadmill and see through covers over the treadmills as they transported a large number of industrial goods, as well as installing large, heavy-duty turrets to protect the obviously valuable goods and resources.

Curiously, they saw her erect a pair of squat, square buildings right there in the courtyard as the robots routed powdery white rock and sand, as well as connecting a large metal pipe into the first. What came out was a slurry of concrete out the other end which yet more bots took and alongside the reinforcement bar being made from raw steel ingots, they started constructing a fortified wall around the perimeter of Beacon Academy, stretching across the mesa's plateau and ringing it several times in a giant spiral travelling halfway down the cliffs, turrets larger than her giant armor everywhere.

"She certainly is a fast worker…" Glynda said as she watched the fortifications slowly come together, rising higher and higher.

"Her designs and solutions are… interesting… and to be expected," Ironwood said.

"How so?"

"It's entirely functional. Not single thought was given to form or aesthetics. It's like Atlas from the great war all over again," Qrow said, his dry cynical bluntness shining once more.

The construction and trail of robots and power lines seemed to catch the attention of a nearby nevermore, who approached beacon academy, causing a stir and panic amongst the students on the grounds.

Until a loud beeping noise sounded and a surface-to-air missile launched and blew it to smithereens in less than five seconds, three of which were the lock on.

Ironwood was practically salivating at the display of raw, unadulterated power.

"It appears she has extremely advanced weaponry as well." Ironwood said, ideas blazing through his mind.

"Indeed" Ozpin said

"You said she reported that she had turned a nearby planet into a… what was it called, a 'Forgeworld'?" Qrow asked.

"She did. She said she'd converted the vast majority of the planet into one giant factory, covering it in machinery before building giant excavators and carving great trenches that she lined with yet more machinery. Above and below the ground is all one giant industrial complex. Where she comes from they supposedly disassemble entire planets for their raw resources."

"We should probably stop her from repeating that here." Qrow said, taking a swig from his flask.

Ozpin said nothing as he watched her closely, idly noting Teams JNPR and RWBY approaching her.

* * *

"What is going on here?" Weiss demanded harshly.

"Ozpin granted me permission to expand my factory to a new location, so I am fortifying a new industrial base, Ma'am." JAN-IV-11438

"Here? In Beacon? But this is a school! Not downtown Vale! There isn't an industrial zone in miles!" Weiss shouted at her

"I apologize, ma'am. Please direct any complaints with my orders towards HazTech Industrial Solutions."

Weiss furrowed her brows. That was a company she hadn't heard of, and she'd been a pawn in her father's games for most of her life, politicking and posing. She knew most factions amongst the upper classes, and the industrial capacity shown by this single agent wouldn't have gone unnoticed.

Either the… thing was lying about something, or there was something she didn't know. Weiss being Weiss, she decided on the easy option

"Is there something you're not telling me?" Weiss challenged

"No, Ma'am. Obfuscation of the truth is forbidden under protocol P-489, unless it is to prevent corporate espionage. Violation of this is to result in activation of Protocol P-233."

Weiss crossed her arms. "And what does this Protocol P-233 entail exactly?"

"Defective workers are to be terminated at the earliest possible convenience. Warranty entitles the owner to replacements at a quarter of the price of the original unit."

Weiss nodded, and Jaune grimaced like he'd just eaten something foul.

"Jaune?" Nora asked

"Uh, JAN- uh…" Jaune began

"JAN-IV-11438" the worker supplied

"I'm just going to call you, uh… Jane… sure, Jane."

Weiss scoffed. "You're giving names to robots now, Jaune?"

"Jane, can you take off your helmet?" Jaune asked, ignoring Weiss

Jane complied, and climbed out of the MkV and removed the MkII's armored helmet. Suddenly, Weiss felt like eating her words.

"What?"

"Uh, guys, didn't she just say she'd…" Yang asked

All eyes turned to Yang, then to Jane.

"H-How do we know she's telling the truth? This could all be some elaborate-" Weiss began, but Jaune cut her off

"It's… Ozpin has the particulars, but she's not lying as far as he can tell, and he'd know" Jaune said "She was… made like this."

"Made that way?" Blake demanded

"All Celestic products are created with pre-programmed instructions and protocols designed to create the perfect, most compliant worker possible. No pay or considerations need be taken, they are built strong enough to endure and cheap enough to replace if one breaks." Jane said automatically.

"There's twenty other pitches like that. Each worse than the last." Jaune said

The rest of the teams felt physically ill at what they were hearing.

"Ozpin hopes that we can help her break some of that programming." Jaune said

"That's it?"

"It's the best we can do." Jaune said "Oz said we'd have to know how they did that to her in the first place to get her to stop. There was an instruction manual and everything..."

Jaune's distant gaze spoke tomes about what he'd seen in that manual.

"Made her like that? That's impossible. What was in that manual that was so horrifying?"

Jane produced another copy, this one paperback, marked volume 1 of five, and with a noticeable curve in it from the small compartment it had been carefully stuffed into. "Protocol P-5899 states to keep a copy on hand for reference at all times."

Jaune took one look at the title and carefully turned on his heel and walked a short distance away like he couldn't stand to be in that book's vicinity.

Blake began to flick through the pages, and like others before her, had quickly come to loathe every mark on those handbook-sized pages. Weiss attempted to read over Blake's shoulder, to see what the fuss was about, but couldn't. Blake was almost a head taller than her and Weiss couldn't get a good angle, so she decided to try and get her information straight from the source.

"So, Jane… what do they use you for?"

"I am a generation IIX Strain-IV unit from the planet Jacintar-II, created for the purpose of creating and running large industrial complexes through a bred-in expertise in industrial and civil engineering. I instinctively know how to create large factory complexes to make any product you care to name, and can direct Strain-1 workers in its operation within acceptable loss standards across a variety of codes and environments. If i may say so myself, I take pride in the famed efficiency of the 8th generation Strain-IV's, and strive to uphold it in all my creations and operations. No other can do it quite like I can."

Yang leaned over to Ruby and whispered "Wow… deja vu."

Blake slammed the book down in disgust and walked up to Jane "Next Book, please."

Jane happily obliged Blake, handing her volume 2 of her instruction manual, and turning back to the others as Blake read.

"So... you're a slave?"

"The legal term is sub-human worker" Jane corrected.

If any of them didn't draw any parallels to the Faunus before the great war, they did now.

"So what happens if workers decide they've had enough of this kind of… treatment?"

"I don't understand the question…"

"You're a slave! Can't you rise up and fight for your own freedoms?"

Jane looked horrified. "Why would I want to?! I enjoy my work, and there's this amazing buzzy feeling I get every time I finish a task."

Janes expression seemed a bit too cheerful at her words, giving a small happy shudder from whatever she was imagining.

Blake frowned upon hearing that and turned the page, before her face became grim.

"I mean, I guess you're asking about the failsafe too, the warranty that ensures quick, humane, disposal if a worker is hurt too bad."

"There's a bomb at the base of her skull" Blake translated, bluntly "They all have it, and they kill any that had it removed"

The teams quietly took a small step away as Blake dropped volume 2 on the pile and asked Jane for Volume 3, before resuming her reading.

Blake glanced up at Jane surreptitiously, flicked over a number of pages after mostly cursory scans, not liking the content at all.

"Blakey, why are you blushing?" Yang asked curiously.

"Shut up Yang… just when it couldn't get worse..." Blake trailed off, furiously flipping through the book. "Why is this one so much longer than the others…"

"What is it?"

"I'd… rather not say" Blake said

"Volume 3 should contain commands and relevant protocols to the usual assignments of the Strain-VI clones, though any strain of clone can be used in a similar manner, if you want to disregard the specialised training and unique genemods each strain beyond the Strain-Is receive."

"What do the sixes do?"

"Don't answer that, Jane." Blake interrupted "it's better if they don't know."

"Yes ma'am."

"So… you seem to know what you're doing with these walls."

"You think? I had to put some designs together on the fly, really, and I can't be that sure of their efficiency with nothing and no historical precedent to really compare it to, but they seemed to work well, and I've been making incremental improvements over initial designs to help keep the biters out."

"Biters?" Ruby asked.

"They're all dead. You don't need to worry about them." Jane said in a short, clipped tone.

"But what were they?"

Jane's eye twitched. "Bugs. Big ones. Liked to chew on me and my FUCKING factory! So I killed them all."

Jane said that last part with a smile and a giggle, and everyone immediately took several steps backwards, making a mental note to never touch her factory, ever. No sane person could snap back to being all sunshine and smiles and mention slaughtering an entire aliens species like Jane just did.

"What was this planet like?" Jaune asked

"It was a class H planet." Jane replied

Everyone looked to Blake who dogeared volume 3 and returned to volume 1. "Says here it was dry, arid and prone to very large tracts of desert… and something here about mineral deposits."

"Yes. They were very abundant." Jane said

"How did you survive?" Weiss asked

"Carefully." Jane replied, infuriatingly.

Yang snickered at the response

"Where were you supposed to be going?" Jaune asked

"I'm told it was a class Y planet. I was to terraform the planet and hopefully help tap its resources. I was to go alone until I could set up a habitable zone with an Atmospheric processor" Jane informed them

"Class Y… Demon world?" Blake said "temperatures in excess of 500 Kelvin… that's… what, 230 celsius…" Blake said before checking her scroll "...and 440 fahrenheit, minimum."

There was a look of concern

"Not to worry, Class IV personnel are uniquely rated to survive at least 50% of all similar Class Y missions long enough to establish an Atmospheric Processor. Celestic Incorporated also offer a replacement scheme for all units that perish on such missions. HazTech Industries identified planet YR-5994 as having great lakes of precious metals. The only reason there was solid land was because 60% of the surface was tungsten. HazTech decided the risk was worth it."

The teens all shared a look in silent horror. Jane was unfazed if she even noticed.

"...Out of curiosity, how high a temperature are you… are you rated for" Pyrrha asked

"Not much more than an actual human, why do you ask?"

"I… I think they were trying to kill you… most metals melt at-"

"Most of them start near the 1780 degrees Kelvin mark, yes." Jane finished for her. "This would be expected. The company often sent workers to 'hopeless' demon worlds in an attempt to cash in on insurance."

Jane's nonchalant way of mentioning that that was exactly what they were trying to do stunned the teens.

"You're not concerned about that… at all?" Weiss asked

Jane failed to respond. She kept moving like she wanted to, but every time she ran into a conflict, between her self preservation instinct and the programming. Every time she ran into either end of the logic contradiction, she grew more and more agitated until she felt something strange.

Jane was caught off-guard when Regulator Arc wrapped his arms around her... but it wasn't an attack or a punishment… instead it raised the sort of feeling that she'd felt that one time she remembered being praised for her work.

Jane had no clue what to do in this situation. It wasn't covered in any of the protocols or instruction or education she'd been given.

"It's okay, Jane. It'll be alright. You don't need to worry here."

Even though she was wearing her armour, Jaune's hug inspired a sense of warmth in Jane and she soon found herself leaning into the embrace. They stayed like that for a long time,

"Finish up out here then head inside. I don't know about where you're from, but here you've earned a break" Jaune said as he broke the hug

"I must ask what I have done wrong before you break me." Jane said

"Break you- you… you can't be serious…" Weiss deadpanned.

"You mean you've never had a chance to stop working and rest? Not even-"

"Oh, rest. Workers needs are secondary to the product." Jane said

"Well… you're the only one we have, and… we're a smaller company"

Jane immediately nodded her head in sudden understanding "Oh, a 'Mom and Pop' business. You just had to say. I'll be sure to keep a careful eye on myself, I'd hate to bankrupt you if I were to expire... strain-IV's like myself can be hard to replace for small companies."

"Out of curiosity, what does a unit like yourself cost to replace?" Weiss asked curiously.

"The base cost of a Strain-IV gen 1 unit is approximately 5,000,000 credits. Workers under warranty can be replaced for a thousandth of their base cost." Blake said, gesturing for Volume 4. "From the last three digits of the barcode on her neck, I'm guessing she's a Generation 8 model- that means the 8th design they mass produced; which are the ones with all the bells and whistles: environmental hardening, increased strength, stamina and durability, and some 'bonus features' in case you have time, resources and want more and don't want to buy a whole other unit."

Blake visibly shuddered at that. "The closest analogy I can make is comparing her to some big CEO's luxury car- more or less a way of saying 'look how rich we are, we can throw money at this that you can't'. The later generation 9's are much lower quality, but cheaper by leaps and bounds."

Jane puffed out her chest, taking pride in that simple fact of her manufacture.

"You said earlier gen 1's come at 5 million, but what about gen 8's?"

"...think around a thousand times the basic Gen 1 cost and you have an idea." Blake said, trying to keep on top of the mental maths converting the figures in her head.

Jane beamed at the praise, missing the sickened looks on many of their faces.

Weiss furrowed her brows in thought. "But… if generation is the main sign of quality, what does strain mean?

"Basic purpose. Strain 1's are, again, basic workers. Muscle and grunt and not a lot else… basically biogical machines, only tangentially human... Strain II's are a little more complex, and are… they're call centre workers and secretaries, basically. Very little physical capabilities but high mental ability. Strain III's… Strain IV's are civil and mechanical engineers. Smart, capable of many kinds of work, and durable enough to set things up to a point where strain I's and dumb robots can manage it. Strain V's are used in more hazardous work, but were banned… it doesn't say why… there's more but we know what Jane is now."

"What about strain III's? You skipped them…"

Blake fixed Yang with an annoyed look. "Literal Human sex dolls."

The teams winced, and lapsed into awkward silence.

"I'm ready to work at full capacity again!" Jane said happily. "What do you need done?"

There was several seconds whilst the teams tried to figure out something for Jane to do.

"Could you work on reinforcing Beacon Academy?" Jaune put forward.

Jane saluted and stomped off in her armour to get to work without another word.

* * *

 **|=^w^=|**


	2. Chapter 2

Jaune was interrupted from his thoughts by Coco sitting next to him at lunch, with Velvet not far behind

"You're Jane's friend, yeah?" Coco asked, sounding like she was dealing with some headache-inducing problem that involved Jaune.

"Yeah?" Jaune said, unsure

"Mind telling me what's up with her?" Coco asked

Jaune sighed and nodded at Blake who handed them part of their copy of the rules.

"What's this?" Coco demanded

"The rules." Jaune said as if he'd rather be anywhere else right now.

"Is she playing a game?" Coco asked, now confused

"I wish." Jaune said, tiredly. "The first few paragraphs will clear everything up… it's aimed at first-time _owners_ and people they want to get up to speed."

Coco raised her eyes at the word choice and the venom he spat the word 'owners' with. Jaune's reputation was for meekness, not whatever that was.

Coco picked up the book and began reading, getting only a few pages in before looking up at Jaune with a small glare.

"This is a joke, right? Because it isn't funny."

"She arrived like that." Jaune sighed

"They're- it says they give you a vial of eternal youth." Coco said "where's that?"

"Jane says we're not her legal owners yet, so we don't get the 'First Time Owners' bundle, but possession is nine tenths of the law, so we 'own' her." Jaune said pushing his lunch aside and resting his forehead on the table, his appetite gone.

"Why?" Velvet asked "why does someone need to own her?"

* * *

Jane handed Ozpin a sheath of papers still warm from whatever printing process had occurred within the arcane inner workings of that convoluted mess she called a factory.

It was ownership papers moving her semi-officially to a new ownership until a proper deal could be made and signed- in actual blood, as a DNA thumbprint if the subtext was being read correctly.

Ozpin grimaced as he read the fine print, before finding the signature line.

"So the name on this line is..." Ozpin hesitated, letting Jane happily finish as her sales programming took over and left her with a glazed look in her eyes.

"Whoever puts their name on that line will be the specified unit's proud owner. If you wish you may put another persons name on said line, so long as they sign the signature and DNA mark personally."

Ozpin took all of two seconds before he managed to hide that one little smile- the one always behind the coffee mug- and put a name on the dotted line, in arguably much finer handwriting than the name's owner, and then put the same on the other two copies- _'because what form isn't done in triplicate?'_ Ozpin grumbled to himself

Jane happily took the papers back before twitching slightly at the name. "R-Regulator Arc, sir?"

Ozpin nodded "He's been in need of a helping hand recently, I'm sure you can find all manner of ways in which to assist him."

Jane saluted dutifully and marched straight out the doors, not seeing Ozpin's small smile.

She was his problem now. Ozpin sipped at his coffee and eagerly prepared for the fireworks.

* * *

Jaune merely groaned at Velvets question, setting his forehead on the table and only looking up as a pair of heavy metal boots stopped next to him and a small stack of papers was pushed towards him.

Jaune looked up at the girl with the radiant smile he could practically feel emanating from behind the intimidating mask of her heavy power armor before inwardly groaning.

Jaune looked at the papers, bracing himself for whatever shock was coming his way. He found himself unable to pierce the dense legalese of the pages and instead handed the sheath to Blake.

"Blake, you've been obsessing over those books Jane gave you. Can you translate these, please."

Blake needn't have bothered, as Jane supplied Jaune with a cheerful "Reporting for duty, Master!"

Blake quickly finished reading, handed the sign-over document back and informed Jaune "Basically that."

Jaune groaned and made everyone's plates jump as he put a dent in the table with his forehead, Weiss letting out an indignant screech as her tea effectively attempted to leap out of its cup and dumped itself directly in her lap.

"So you own her for reals now?" Coco asked, looking like she wanted to punch someone.

"It's not finalized" Blake said "But she's most of the way to being purchased. Only way it becomes more official is when HazTech actually sells her."

"W- Why?" Velvet asked

"Interplanetary trade regulations Section 44319825 section 18 article 392 mandates that Workers can only be tasked and regulated by their owners or parties working as direct representatives of the owner. As HazTech- Proprietary Limited- is unable to issue new commands and orders, I require a new owner if I am to continue my factory's expansion, thus I presented a nearby authority with papers to begin a transferral and locate an eligible new master, that authority signed Regulator Jaune's name, thus he is my new master until such a stage as the transaction is either cancelled or completed." Jane informed, smiling unnervingly as if discussing the sale of people was a regular conversation.

Jaune groaned at the steadily developing migraine.

"You are my favourite owner so far, Master." Jane added, smiling and standing up straighter as he looked at her.

Jaune just gave her a pat on the shoulder for that and returned to rubbing his temples.

"Ozpin suggested that you were in need of assistance" Jane said

There was a pause until Nora said, "Well, that explains several things."

"Did he mention what sort of assistance I needed?" Jaune asked, confused

"Nope, but I assume it has to do with architecture, engineering, optimisation and efficiency. Though if you have need of such; I am good at a little bit of everything thanks to my Type-8 heritage." Jane beamed, proudly.

Jaune racked his brains for something to occupy Jane, until eventually his eyes settled on his friends and he had to ask her "Can you put together a… I dunno, a clubhouse or something for us? JNPR and RWBY, I mean."

Jane stood straight-backed and saluted, before marching off, heavy boots producing a dull thunk with every step as she went to go scope a location and plan the design.

Jaune noticed a lot of stares at him

"A… clubhouse?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's just something to keep Jane busy." Jaune defended, blushing slightly in embarrassment and adding "I figured it's what Ruby would do."

"I _LOVE IT_ " Ruby and Nora declared loudly and at the same time.

They both gasped and shouted "Jinx!" at the same time.

Ignoring the two, who were currently battling to see who could out-jinx the other,

"So, what are your plans, Mr. Owns-a-slave?" Coco asked, a tone of hostility creeping into her voice.

Jaune gulped "I didn't ask for this!"

"Well, she's yours now."

"I- I guess we try and break her programming?" Jaune ventured

"Programming?" Coco asked

Blake took the book from her, flipped it to one of the pages and handed it back

Coco read the indicated passage and looked up at Jaune. "...These guys are real pieces of work."

"Don't I know it." Jaune said, rubbing at his eyes tiredly.

"So… why a clubhouse anyway?" Nora asked loudly.

Jaune groaned quietly at his teammates teasing tone.

* * *

"Are you sure this was a smart idea?" Ironwood asked

"I did show her building and zoning codes before leaving her to Jaune. It's unlikely she could do much damage." Ozpin said as serenely as ever.

As if to prove Ozpin wrong, a large number of those large cylindrical drones with the very loud jets in the middle buzzed past the tower in a vision-obscuring swarm.

Ozpin frowned and stared at the remains of his once-favourite mug, now several shards of hot ceramic on the floor.

Ironwood was just as surprised as Ozpin.

"We should probably check those out" Ironwood said, after tearing his eyes from this momentary lapse in Ozpin's composure, and back to Ozpin's face.

"Indeed" Ozpin said, brushing off the incident like it had never happened, and heading towards the elevator.

* * *

Construction of the clubhouse began in earnest as logistics drones began delivering raw materials to the construction site, and construction drones did as their name suggested and began by hauling up great clods of earth to make way for foundations and support piles. As this wasn't some slapped-together pre-fab, Jane was forced to perform her task the slow, inefficient and messy way.

Said construction attracted a lot of interested onlookers who were quite interested in the display of drone-assisted construction, constructing a large variety of industrial equipment to build, shape, mix and forge, before supplying them with a small, but steady stream of metals, stone, concrete, and tanks of various fluids.

At the centre of it all, amidst robots pouring loads of cement and welding together a large steel frame was Jane, laying on the ground with her feet in the air and watching her blueprints as they slowly came together, humming a tune with no real melody.

This peace of mind was shattered when a shadow appeared over her, and Jane saw a number of humans standing over her with large grins on their faces. Missing the subtext, Jane gave them back her own smile.

"So you're the freak that's been making waves around here, huh?" Cardin asked

"This unit is not defective." Jane said, perplexed.

"Well I think you've got a major malfunction, freak." Cardin said

"Impossible, this unit is still operational and operating at 95% capacity." Jane said, rolling up her blueprints and stashing it in the container over her shoulder before resuming her conversation

"You think you're some kind of robot, freak?" Cardin asked

"Impossible, Artificial Intelligences are outlawed under the Machine Restriction Act code 89236148, section 4, articles 1 through 18 of Galactic law following the Epsilon Eridani Incident of 2893." Jane rattled off

Cardin, ever the paragon of intelligence and good taste, didn't understand a word past 'impossible'.

"You're gonna cut it with this robot crap real soon or else you'll be eating a knuckle sandwich." Cardin said, grabbing her by the front of her collar

Jane blinked, tilting her head in confusion. "Why would I eat knuckles? They do not sound appetizing."

"Because I'm gonna punch your teeth in with 'em in a second." Cardin said

"Oh, I wouldn't recommend that. Code P-1542 states that Company Assets must be preserved."

Cardin lost his temper. Teams JNPR and RWBY arrived at the scene to witness Cardin's hand being crushed in Jane's vicelike grip before a backhand came up against his aura with absurd force. Jane frowned, and tried again, each blow rattling Cardin's brain with the absurd force until his aura gave way and he was sent to the ground, stunned but conscious.

"I will have to ask you three to disperse immediately" Jane said, turning to the rest of team _RDL "As stipulated in protocol P-9821: Violent protesting is to be dispersed by force if requests to disperse are not heeded."

A large boxy rifle appeared in Jane's hands, pulled off her back in less than a second.

Team _RDL trembled before the cold impassive face of the human-machine in front of them, now devoid of its usual radiance and seemingly actively sucking heat, joy and colour from the world as the large, bulky capacitors on the rifle audibly whined.

_RDL abandoned their team leader to his fate.

Cardin himself didn't know when to quit, and rose to his full height, before collapsing again as the laser rifle discharged into his gut.

Jane didn't let up as she blasted Cardin again and again, the rifle set to low power to inspire a _supremely_ painful burning sensation. Cardin writhed as blast after blast was levelled at him, before the rifle was returned to its clamp and Cardin was given a rough kick in the sides for his trouble.

Jaune approached Jane and he saw Jane's face light up at seeing him. "Master."

Jaune winced at the title, but continued on. Others around him did a double-take at the sudden mood-shift.

"I have the first floor well underway, and its walls should reach completion within the hour, and the framing for the second is being put up as we speak!" Jane bubbled happily, not reacting as Cardin stood up behind her; now armed his aura-covered mace. Jane reacted to what should have been impossibly fast for a non-hunter and used her elbow to 'slap' the mace aside.

Everyone winced at the cracking sound this interaction produced, but their eyes followed the motion as Jane continued the motion and slugged Cardin in the face with every ounce of power the left arm of her armour possessed. Everyone winced at the sound of cartilage and bone giving way with an audible crunch. More onlookers winced again as her augmented steel boot drove itself directly between the bully's legs, lifting him several inches off the ground.

With Cardin dealt with, attention turned back to Jane, who was now inspecting her armoured right arm, which she had used to block and everything below the elbow was now sitting at an 'impossible' angle to the rest of her arm.

Jaune made a horrified choking noise as she grabbed at the clearly broken part of her arm and roughly jerked it into its proper position, her face tightening from the clear pain of setting the bone beneath her armor.

Alas, the armour and the arm it cradled was broken, and it failed to respond properly, the weight of the armour keeping her arm from moving.

"You need to come out of that armour to get that looked at" Jaune said, in a numb, detached way. He was not handling the look of Jane's broken arm at all well.

Jane nodded and hit the release lever, wincing as the armour that was supposed to cradle her arm now had it trapped within. Some prying pulled the stubborn plates loose from their frame and allowed Jane to stumble out of her armor.

Almost no one was expecting the wretched creature that stumbled out of that armour, covered in scars that spoke of dozens, if not hundreds of close calls with some kind of large animal, covered in scars of every size and type imaginable, the parallel jagged lines of claws, 'rings' of puckered puncture wounds from bites, the angry red crater of punctures, and even the gnarled, blobby patches of skin caused by burns, of all types; chemical, acid and fire; and she was bruised all over looking like some overripe fruit, particularly around her joints. The last thing everyone noticed was hair that looked like it had never been washed, just one lank, greasy rope of knotted-together dreadlocks that stank.

To say that it was horrifying was an understatement, enough so that it took awhile for everyone to realise that she was completely naked, and not even attempting to cover up.

Jane just simply retrieved her tools and tried to fix her armour's arm, like she wasn't arguably one of the most horrifying things these teenagers had ever seen.

Jaune stopped her and informed Jane "You're hurt"

"Company property takes precedence."

Blake groaned at what she was about to say, and pointed out " _You're_ company property."

Jane twitched violently, likely hitting a snag in her programming thanks to Blake's words as she quickly reassessed her priorities.

Blake felt the stares directed at her "She's meant to take care of more valuable company assets before lower value ones… but Jaune doesn't own anything more expensive than she is."

Jaune blinked in surprise and asked "how much is five billion credits?"

"I helped build some houses once. They seemed to go for 500,000" Jane said as she carefully splinted her arm with the spare armor plates that had been delivered by a pair of drones as Jane chewed on some dried fish fillets, before looking distressed she couldn't get the two plates to stay still.

"Then aren't workers kinda pricey?" Jaune asked

"Standard practice is to have the worker population grow with the company branch." Jane said

Everyone in earshot stared at Jane with pity as she fought to keep her arm out of a drone's jetwash whilst it held her injured arm still so she could attempt to tie the splint in place.

"Did anyone else notice how Jane's aura never manifested when she got hit or was it just me?" Coco said, snapping out of her shock at how beat up Jane looked.

No one could remember seeing it, so they asked Jane, who responded with a simple "What's an 'aura'?"

"You didn't see the flash of colour every time you hit Cardin?"

"Oh, the energy shield! I saw that, and assumed his outfit must be equipped with a fusion core and shield generator I couldn't see" Jane said. "Do you call shield generators Aura here?"

Everyone blinked at that news "No, this is something more…" Jaune began

"Personal" Pyrrha said

Jaune nodded "yeah, that. It's to do with your soul, and it protects you without needing some kind of fancy gear"

Jane blinked, her head tilting in confusion. "I have been informed that I lack a human soul by my creators."

That was arguably the worst crime any of them had ever heard.

"That's just demonstrably false." Coco said "Only Grimm don't have souls, come here, we'll see to it you know about yours."

Jane obediently stepped forward

"Jaune, if you'd do the honours. She's your responsibility" Coco said

"Me? I've never really done it before, I don't know how" Jaune said

"It's a personal thing. It's not good to have just some stranger do it. You need to touch her soul with yours, which requires trust or else she'll reject you." Pyrrha said, before turning to Jane. "Jane, out of curiosity, how much do you trust Jaune?"

Jane smiled happily. "Completely! He's my master, why wouldn't I?"

Jaune stared at Jane nervously before plucking up the courage to try. He held her in his arms and tried to recall everything from when Pyrrha had unlocked his not so long ago, not just the words, but the feeling too. Jaune's eyes were shut tight as he held a deep, meditative concentration, and he didn't notice that his hand had strayed down from her chest and that he was unintentionally groping her, nor Jane's face blushing bright red at the contact.

Pyrrha opened her mouth to alert Jaune to what was going on, but Coco quietly shushed her

"But he's-"

"I want to see how this goes" Coco said

Jaune focused, feeling out with his aura, ignorant of Jane's eyes going wide as she saw Jaune literally glow with magic. There was nothing in her protocols about this!

Jane went rigid as she felt the glow pushing into her; face blushing redder, somehow. Somehow her new master was making her feel woozy and weak at the knees and like she'd never felt before.

The onlookers felt deeply uncomfortable at Janes small gasps and moans as her body shuddered once they realised what was making Jane so hot under the collar. Several of them sported furious blushes, most were rooted to the spot, most tried to look away but many of those couldn't tear their eyes away, and Yang covered Ruby's eyes.

Cardin just groaned pitifully in pain, completely unaware of his surroundings.

Jaune acted on some deep-rooted instinct and did what he thought he was supposed to do, prompting Jane's soul to explode with colour and new life. Opening his eyes, Jaune found Jane glowing 'dayglo orange'.

Those who saw knew about aura saw that Jaune had managed to do something that was normally very tricky to do on his first attempt. Those who knew about Jaune knew that he'd only seen it done once before, and that was when he was on the receiving end. Those who knew about both were beyond impressed.

Those who knew neither found themselves scandalized as Jaune openly groped the girl.

Jaune blinked the lights out of his eyes as a wave of tiredness and dizziness hit him, and he stumbled, removing his hand from Jane's chest.

Jane was positively vibrating at everything that had just happened, the bruises and scars littering her body starting to heal already, the lighter bruises already fading from sight.

Jaune recovered before Jane and noticed that Jane was blushing. Jaune's face became a mask of concern and he pressed his hand against her forehead. "Jeez, you don't look so well, are you okay? do you think you might have a fever? Your injuries look- looked pretty terrible."

Jane, at her wits end, went into total meltdown; screamed and shoved Jaune aside before charging past him in the direction of her factory and to 'safety' from all the strange and conflicting emotions whirling inside her mind.

She ran straight into the waiting arms of Coco and Velvet who had been waiting for her. Coco forcibly dressed her in a rough towel that Fox had ran out for them and both she and Velvet began forgmarching her into beacon. "You're not going anywhere until you're clean and hygienic again. Don't even try to wriggle out of this, it's for your own good."

Jane gave a meek-sounding mewl of helplessness as the two girls marched her straight towards the dorm showers to be forcibly cleaned of every last speck of dirt, grime and dead skin until she positively sparkled.

Jaune watched as Jane was being hauled off to go make the shower run black with filth with open confusion. "What was that all about?"

* * *

Jane protested as Coco and Velvet dressed into coveralls goggles and gloves and had Yatsuhashi push her into the shower, which was already running with warm water.

Once Coco and Velvet were outfitted in hazmat suits, they produced an arsenal of creams, lotions, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, brushes, loofahs and even a squeaky rubber duck as they closed in on the poor girl in the stall and began attacking her, the water picking up a dark grey, almost black hue as years of unwashed debris lifted off of her skin

Shampoos were employed to try and shift the congealed mess of grease, dirt, dead skin and hair still growing out her scalp by some miracle, Coco working it through the girl's hair as Velvet employed first great scrubbing brushes laden with soap that lightened her skin three shades, then employed scratchy cheap toothbrushes to catch all the little fine details, scrubbing every crease and crevice as they worked to help

Coco and Velvet shared a glance when they noticed Jane didn't have a belly button.

"Guess all that talk about her really wasn't just… just because." Coco said amidst Jane's loud protesting.

Velvet just shrugged and got back to scrubbing.

With a strong grip, Coco forced Jane's hair under the water and rinsed out the third load of shampoo, the congealed grease finally thinned out enough to let Coco work it to a lather, and noticed the lighter tone of Jane's hair.

"Huh, brown instead of black" Coco noted, before looking down "Should have seen that, earlier I guess. Heh, the carpet matches the drapes!"

Velvet swatted at her teammate with a scandalized look on her face. "Bad Coco! No ogling the victi- I mean new girl."

Velvet did, however, produce a can of shaving foam

"Now stay very still and the razor won't slip." Velvet warned

Jane could only whimper in fear at the predatorial look in Coco and Velvets eyes.

* * *

Jane had stopped screaming and begging to be released some time ago, and now she was forced to lay still for longer as Fox was sent to burn the coveralls. Now Coco and Velvet were no longer washing her, Velvet and Coco had swapped roles, and now Velvet was taking the lead and Coco was playing the nurse as Velvet put Jane through a full physical examination.

Jane had heard of these kinds of people before, though usually a worker didn't receive this sort of treatment unless they were to be presented for… _things_.

The idea filled Jane with equal parts excitement and dread as Velvet poked and prodded her, and applied more of that 'aura' stuff to help accelerate her healing. Velvet made sure that Jane's job splinting her arm was adjusted so it would heal on its own in a much nicer fashion

Having the two fuss over her just made her feel uncomfortable, and even little things were provoking jitters, such that she almost didn't hear Velvet talking.

"You're in really bad shape… that much is clear just from looking at you, but you've got so many ugly scars and poorly healed fractures on top of everything else… You haven't been eating right, and you need a lot of tender love and care… Aura and a good diet with exercise should help fix most of that. Scars fade, bones will straighten and strengthen again, and you'll be feeling a lot better in a few months, maybe." Velvet said.

"I feel fi-" Jane started for what felt like the umpteenth time, only to yelp as the bunny girl pinched her and gave her a pointed look.

"The fact you actually believe what you're saying is sadder than the fact this many injuries can exist on a single person at the same time." Velvet said. "Now hush, the doctors talking."

Jane did her best to just hold herself together, but with things moving so fast for her, she was barely holding together.

Velvet eventually passed the reins back to Coco

"Well, she'll live, what now?" Velvet asked

"Well, we need clothes for her." Coco said, looking at Jane with a critical eye. "She looks like my clothes should work for now, at least until we can get her some proper fitted clothes…"

Velvet looked at Coco and back to Jane and silently agreed with the assessment, they were pretty similar now that she mentioned it.

"She looks almost like your long-lost sister, Coco." Velvet said, before smirking slightly. "Your bigger and more, developed sister, but that's besides the point."

Coco reexamined Jane and glared at Velvet in an almost pouty manner. "Traitor… you're supposed to be on my side!"

"Well, I have to keep your ego in check somehow, don't I?"

Coco sulked slightly, admitting her (momentary) defeat before refocusing on the nervous looking Jane as she started opening drawers to get at her spare clothes.

"I suppose I could spare a shirt and some pants for her…" Coco trailed off as her fashionista side started taking over.

Coco produced a 'simple' outfit she usually wore when she didn't plan to be seen all day- which wasn't often, admittedly- and started handed it to Jane.

"Here, put these on. It should work." Coco said, and turned around as Jane stood there, still naked, still mute.

Coco sighed, not wanting to waste time, and enlisted Yatsuhashi in helping manipulate the girl whilst Coco dressed her.

Except manipulating became restraining as Jane struggled against them. Yatsuhashi was able to keep Jane from hitting one of them long enough for Coco to force a pair of panties up her legs.

As the soft cotton reached home base, the fight fled Jane and she seemed to deflate in Yatsuhashi's arms. Yatsuhashi readjusted his grip to let the girls work, with velvet being tasked with the outerwear whilst Coco set to the near-impossible task of fitting Jane's almost F-cup breasts into her large C-cup bras.

It was never going to happen, and Coco knew it, but she was going to try anyways. Coco got to work stretching the bra, fitting the boobs into the cups, and pulling the stretchy, elastic material taught.

That got a reaction out of Jane, who gasped and wheezed at the tightness around her chest as her boobs were steadily crushed into her chest.

Coco pulled tighter, trying to force the straps around Jane's chest, ignoring the sound of stitches popping until there was a loud 'snap!' and Velvet gave a shrill shriek and fell backwards from trying to get the shirt over Jane's head, whilst Coco nearly punched her knuckles together.

"Are you okay?" Coco asked, looking around Jane

Velvet was rubbing her eye as she pulled herself up off the ground and said "Yeah, my aura caught it. Your bra snapped."

Coco held up the now useless loops of fabric, the underwire now dangerously exposed after attacking Velvet's face and frowned. That had been one of her biggest bras, bought before that time she'd lost all that weight in training.

"Well… damned if that doesn't hurt my pride." she said, before sighing. It wasn't like the bra fit anymore anyways. "Ah, well. I'll do what I can, but hopefully we can get her in proper stuff before long."

Coco grabbed another bra, more a loop of elastic fabric with straps on it, though she didn't have high hopes for this one, despite the stretchy material. This time, Velvet stood well clear of the bra's attack range as Coco pulled it wider and wider, up to and beyond its limits attempting to get a fit, no matter how bad until Coco accidentally snapped it in her hands trying to stretch the elastic wide enough to cover Jane's handful-and-a-half bust.

"Let's… let's just skip the bra, shall we?" Coco said, not wanting to sacrifice portions of her wardrobe she actually used… Besides, continuing was an exercise in futility: all her other bras were also both less stretchy and smaller than the two 'sacrifices'.

* * *

Jane wasn't handling going shopping at all. She wasn't handling anything at all right now. She wasn't handling all the fussing and bother about her, and she especially wasn't prepared, in any way, shape or form, for Coco and the stylist asking her for her opinion on things.

"Is she… okay?" The seamstress asked Coco not wanting to get too close to the girl who was now wild-eyed and hyperventilating after she'd pulled the finished dress over her customer's head.

It was quite a bright and almost aggressively cheerful piece too, being that curious 'dayglo orange' colour that had been specifically requested. It was a summer dress that came down to hang below her client's knees, with broad straps and a chaste cut and opaque material.

Coupled with the silver belt that Coco had picked out for her, the seamstress had to admit the whole ensemble resembled a safety vest, which was a curious look, even by the vastly non-standard norms of Huntresses.

"I- I-" Jane said, twitching harshly with her pupils contracting as she looked at herself in the mirror, her chest heaving as she sucked air down like it was the last thing she'd ever do.

"Hun, whats wro-" Coco started to ask, before getting pushed off her feet as Jane let out a distressed whimper and bolted for the door, tearing the pull door off its hinges as she forced her way through.

Coco blinked in surprise, before grimacing and bolting out the door after the panicked engineer, grabbing Velvet on the way out with a curse.

"Your friend is certainly… high-strung." the Tailor noted

"I think… we may have overloaded her" Yatsuhashi said.

The Tailor shook herself out of her surprise before fixing the gentle giant with an annoyed look. "You better pay for all of this."

Yatsuhashi just grunted and adjusted his grip on the myriad of boxes and clothes in his hands piled up high enough that the flowers on the panties were set to give him hayfever. Somehow he was able to shift everything to fish Coco's purse out of her handbag. It wouldn't be the first time, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Call it a little revenge.

"How much does she owe you?" Yatsuhashi asked

The tailor smiled at the large man, a dangerous glint in her eye.

* * *

Coco and Velvet quickly dropped from chasing after Jane to following the trail of disturbance and minor destruction she left in her wake. Damn but that girl could _move_.

As they lagged further and further behind, the trail grew more and more sparse as incidents naturally drifted further and further away from where they happened, until eventually they were in central Vale with no clue where Jane had gone on her erratic path through the city.

Coco had to stop once Velvet started gasping for air, both unable to continue any further without at least some break. As if on cue, Coco got a call from Ozpin himself.

"Hello, Professor Ozpin?" Coco said

"Hello Miss Adel, I know you were the one last seen with her, so would you mind telling me why someone matching her description just charged through Vale's Northeast gate at breakneck speed?"

"I- er- that is to say- she had a bit of a freakout?" Coco said

"Why would that be Miss Adel?"

"We- er- after we cleaned her off, we took Jane shopping for clothes." Coco said

"I see… can you walk me through the breakdown?" Ozpin asked

"Things were… shaky, but under control, we got her measurements, picked out some fabrics, and had the first dress put together for her with no real problems, then the tailor asked if she liked it…" Coco said, trailing off at the dawn of several realisations.

"I believe we have found the crux of the issue." Ozpin said

"What? Asking Jane for her opinion?" Coco asked

"Indeed." Ozpin replied, sagely

"How- how can she not- how did that cause her to freak out?!"

"It seems that she was already overstressed by you and miss Scarlatina's efforts to forcibly look after her. I have no doubt that if each thing you did to her was introduced gradually and taken one at a time, she would have been fine, but she comes from a place where people like her are commodities at best; less than human. She will need time to adjust to Remnant and being considered a person."

Coco was angry at the kind of people who would do that, but also ashamed she'd given Jane a meltdown, even accidentally. Coco couldn't properly articulate how she felt or even figure out how she should react to that.

"I would think about this and hope Jane is okay once she has recovered." Ozpin supplied "In the meantime, I believe you have a teammate that you rather rudely abandoned now on his way back to Beacon."

Coco felt even more stupid as Ozpin hung up and she shouted "Crap, we forgot about Yatsu!"

Velvet and Coco raced back to regroup with their lost teammate as soon as possible.

* * *

 **/** **|=^w^=|** **\**

 **After a 'brief' bender or four of late-night (for Australia) Factorio, we've returned to hand out some extra Box-floof love for all of you reading this!**

Tell us what you think of chapter 2!


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